4-8 at best is likely, in a period where it is essential we win more football games. Not calling for Wilcox to be fired mid-season, but you simply can’t let Knowlton and Wilcox hang around and bumble their way through another year.
I have to think about this one for awhile. The stats and time of possession were almost even. Just the critical blunders doomed the Bears. It's hard to believe in year seven we'd be facing such a gut-punch loss. Edit: Finally filled out the survey, pretty low score especially special teams and coaching.
Time of possession doesn't matter when Washington scores 14 points without their offense stepping on the field. We were not a few miscues away. We were completely outclassed in every facet of the game.
Counselor: Is it not true, Mr. Finley, that you willingly stepped onto the turf at Husky Stadium, along with 10 of your team mates that evening?
Mr. Finley: Well, yes but I was told to do so by Mr. Spav and I understand Mr. Wilx approved it. I would not have stepped onto the the turf had I not been told, such as what happened to Mr. Sam.
I was getting ready for bed and turned on the game to 14-0. Went ahead to bed at that point. I check the stats this morning and you're right at how even they are. Looking at those you would not guess a blowout.
The action wasn't completely one-sided, but they were 100-150 yards up on us when both teams had starters in. On top of that we were -2 on turnovers and allowed two scores on long returns, and when you put all that together you get a lopsided score.
Welp. The UW offense marched, at will, on us. So, one might argue that they simply scored faster with defensive and ST big plays, but would have, anyway.
Well, got home at 1am from the game and enjoyed a lovely Seattle evening of a beautiful sunset and festive stadium. Oh, the Bears were also there and didn't enjoy anything, but as a fan in the stands, I had to admire the offense, special teams and stadium of the Huskies. Any leader is responsible for taking their teams to the next level. To build culture, identity and morale. By this standard, and those of a D1 football coach, Wilcox has had many years to build good special teams, good offense, good defense. He has failed in two of those. He's a great guy. A failed coach overall. We are where we are because of his lack of foresight, planning and execution over many years. Period.
Luckhurst is broken. I feel that the kid can't be *this* bad, but we have no honest way of knowing what the kid's ceiling may have been because of the larger issue--Wilcox's utter indifference towards dedicated special teams instruction. Still, at this point, whatever natural confidence Luckhurst may have had to start the year has to be shattered. Continuing to run him out there these past two games only made it worse.
Didn’t expect us to win this game, but I did expect us to compete. We were embarrassingly unprepared. Sticking with Finley was malpractice, unless the goal was to ruin both qbs’ confidence and to lose the locker room in the process. And we have kicker that is overwhelmed enough that I worry about his health since he continues to get thrown out there.
It's not so much Wilcox, its the fact that we haven't the the material that Washington, Oregon, USC, etc have. Cal and Stanford are limited to recruiting players who have to have the grades to enter their intitutions. Also, this portal crap is killing college sports. It's like free agency in pro sports with every one eligible.
A larger focus on entrance requirements: What about UCLA’s? Michigan’s? Notre Dame’s? All top tier academically but, somehow, they also get top flight recruits, coaches and have far superior programs. Cal could do the same IF IT REALLY WANTED TO!
He said the schools are top tier academically, not necessarily the athletes.
Our academic exception percentage (i.e. athletes who are excused for being below admission standards and admitted). I do not know the threshold, but the bar was set so high, following Tedford, that we, program-wise, are self-destructing. Perhaps I'm wrong. But imagine UCLA's threshold is 50%, while ours is 20%, just a hearsay guess.
With all due respect, gents, this argument is weak. Cal has an incredibly solid NIL thru CALegends that is in the top 1/4 of the conference and attracted a very solid transfer portal class to go along with an experienced D. The team has talented players, and arguing that Cal is middling because of a lack of horses is nothing more than excuse making for a weak coaching staff.
Again, with all my respect - I just disagree on Wilcox’s culpability - look at Wazzu/Or St/Utah.
At this point a change is warranted, though clearly there was not a tarmac moment. But the administrative ennui in accepting continued mediocrity is a big problem. Suffering through the worst loss of the Wilcox era is almost unconscionable at this point. I mean fans stepped up and answered Cal Legends' capital call by speaking with their wallets, an important first step which needs continued growth. And after that we get a horrific start in Pac-12 play, which must fall on the coaches. Hopefully it is not too late to get to a .500 season which would be nice in this era of Pac-12 juggernauts.
Not the hill I want to die, Jimmy, but one must admit, fifty plus years betrays a pattern. I have read you, yourself, refer to it. I just won't bet any money firing Wilcox will make the difference, however, I would not rule it out.
In the end, alumni and donors must pool leverage and make a statement to effect systemic change.
Apples and Oranges Geoff ... let's look at our brother from the south (UCLA - same state and same academic system). USWN lists Cal and UCLA tied academically at 15 - you must have a GPA of 4.15 to attend UC Berkeley and UCLA only accepts applicants with a GPA of 4.18 or higher - so now that we have identified that it's not academics that's holding us back ... looking at current climate and according to 247 for the class of 24 CAL currently ranks second from the bottom in recruiting with SMU pulling up the rear (they're a G5 program so that makes sense) while Furd is 4th IN THE ACC??? Behind the likes of FSU, Clemson, Miami, then FURD followed by UNC (they got their branding name right) and Duke (currently ranked in top 20 FBS (7th academically) ... We're behind UVA and Boston Freaking College - are you kidding me?
There are teams that are well-coached but out-talented, and then there are teams that both lack talent and coaching. We unfortunately, fall into the latter.
The interceptions by Finley are bad coaching (mainly by playing him over Jackson), the lack of blocking on bubble screens is a lack of coaching, the utter disarray that is special teams is a lack of coaching, these are just a few examples.
We benefited plenty from the portal this year, with us getting a net positive. It's just that some other teams have done better than we have, both recruiting high school and transfer players.
In the end, I think it allows better players on the field at a given time, since guys who were buried on depth charts but otherwise would be pretty good can transfer and see the field.
Wilcox is a proven good defensive coach. His main mistake as a head coach is hiring terrible Offensive and defensive coordinators. Spavital shows no deception isn his offense. No reverses, counters, quick traps, bootlegs, etc. Sermon's defense rarely puts on a full blitze package where he has corner or nickel dogs, or double A gap dogs. His defense scheme is way too generic.
Repeating a comment I’ve shared in seasons past, from my dear friend and fellow Berkeley Monthly colleague the late, great Walter Matkowsky, “Cal just doesn’t have the horses.”
The interception was most certainly a gift. In fact, all three of Finley's interceptions were horrible, horrible decisions, which resulted in unforced turnovers by Washington's defense. Therefore, it is fair to classify them as gifts.
Understand the meaning of 'gift' in this sporting context. But, there is an opposing team on the field doing everything it can to disrupt and confuse their opponent's offensive schemes.
To me a 'gift' in the sporting context is an unforced error. Finley not throwing the ball out of bounds when throwing the ball away is a gift. Finley throwing into double coverage deep down field was a gift. Finley throwing directly to a waiting linebacker that had to move one step was a gift. Those are mistakes that should never happen. Just like Cameron Goode's pick six against Ole Miss.
Yea....but....was the 'error' a result of a missed assignment, defensive decoy, or some other factor we are not aware of? There is also another team on the field trying to win.
That is the 'unforced' part of the unforced error. The defense did not force Finley into some of those errors. Not throwing the ball out of bounds is an unforced error. He might have been chased, but you have to throw it out of bounds.
I went back and looked at that 66-27 beating that Cal took against Washington in 2016 and can now say that game was imminently more watchable than what we saw last night. Cal was only trailing 28-20 in the middle of the second quarter until Washington turned on the jets in the second half. Davis Webb threw three interceptions in that game, too, but he was not benched the next game as Finley undoubtedly will be against ASU.
So I am calling you out Mr. Wilcox about what you said in the presser. You are going to look at "8,000 things" to turn around the season? Really? Doing that requires real work, I mean setting up a cot in the bowels of Memorial Stadium a la Jeff Tedford kind of work. Clearly you are not working that hard for your team to look that sloppy in the most pivitol game of the year. We all expected a loss, but this? Bad coaches and bad fits don't get better with time, folks, which is why most of them are let go in two or three years at the P5 level. It looks to me like Wilcox is simply grifting $5 million a year from the Cal coffers unless shown otherwise.
Finished the usual post game day morning reading of the blogs. Seemingly have lobotomized myself over the years of this drawn out noninvasive surgery version of it. Repetitive reading and posting of "how many bears can dance on the head of a pin" needs to be reassessed but I've said that before.
Penix envy
It’s not the size of the Penix but the throwing motion in the ocean.
LOL!!!
It had to be said.
I’ll pass on this one. Probably be an INT anyway.
Penix gets my heisman vote…..at least the Husky fans didn’t rub it too much in my face….
Classy. Better than a lot of the fans for another school in the Northwest that I can think of.
Did we watch the same fans?
One sign said, "B!G 10, sorry, Cal, you're not invited."
I think the Huskies are just warming up to be a carbon copy of the $C North (i.e. Uncle Phil's Charity).
Thanks Rick.
4-8 at best is likely, in a period where it is essential we win more football games. Not calling for Wilcox to be fired mid-season, but you simply can’t let Knowlton and Wilcox hang around and bumble their way through another year.
what makes you think JW can coach a W next week?
He should beat ASU.
It’ll be close tho.
I'm a bit worried.
Did $C go in overconfident?
ASU gave them a fight and has beaten us in CMS before.
SC has Colorado next week… maybe looking past the Sun Devils…and their D is still a work in progress.
That D killed them in the playoffs last year. Cold comfort for us.
I have to think about this one for awhile. The stats and time of possession were almost even. Just the critical blunders doomed the Bears. It's hard to believe in year seven we'd be facing such a gut-punch loss. Edit: Finally filled out the survey, pretty low score especially special teams and coaching.
Good example of how stats can be misleading or meaningless.
Time of possession doesn't matter when Washington scores 14 points without their offense stepping on the field. We were not a few miscues away. We were completely outclassed in every facet of the game.
Yeah and our offense had the first 3 possession of the game to rack up yards and ToP before IW even had a chance to gain any yards.
We were dominated.
And not in a consensual way.
They didn't even give us a safety word.
Counselor: Is it not true, Mr. Finley, that you willingly stepped onto the turf at Husky Stadium, along with 10 of your team mates that evening?
Mr. Finley: Well, yes but I was told to do so by Mr. Spav and I understand Mr. Wilx approved it. I would not have stepped onto the the turf had I not been told, such as what happened to Mr. Sam.
Yes, the case is strong, here.
Ex facto, we were f***ed by Penix.
I was getting ready for bed and turned on the game to 14-0. Went ahead to bed at that point. I check the stats this morning and you're right at how even they are. Looking at those you would not guess a blowout.
I don't think stats were even when first-stringers were in the game.
The action wasn't completely one-sided, but they were 100-150 yards up on us when both teams had starters in. On top of that we were -2 on turnovers and allowed two scores on long returns, and when you put all that together you get a lopsided score.
Welp. The UW offense marched, at will, on us. So, one might argue that they simply scored faster with defensive and ST big plays, but would have, anyway.
Well, got home at 1am from the game and enjoyed a lovely Seattle evening of a beautiful sunset and festive stadium. Oh, the Bears were also there and didn't enjoy anything, but as a fan in the stands, I had to admire the offense, special teams and stadium of the Huskies. Any leader is responsible for taking their teams to the next level. To build culture, identity and morale. By this standard, and those of a D1 football coach, Wilcox has had many years to build good special teams, good offense, good defense. He has failed in two of those. He's a great guy. A failed coach overall. We are where we are because of his lack of foresight, planning and execution over many years. Period.
When your team can’t even make PATs, it is time to get a new head coach.
Luckhurst is broken. I feel that the kid can't be *this* bad, but we have no honest way of knowing what the kid's ceiling may have been because of the larger issue--Wilcox's utter indifference towards dedicated special teams instruction. Still, at this point, whatever natural confidence Luckhurst may have had to start the year has to be shattered. Continuing to run him out there these past two games only made it worse.
He has my sympathy. He is definitely rattled.
Didn’t expect us to win this game, but I did expect us to compete. We were embarrassingly unprepared. Sticking with Finley was malpractice, unless the goal was to ruin both qbs’ confidence and to lose the locker room in the process. And we have kicker that is overwhelmed enough that I worry about his health since he continues to get thrown out there.
We pulled him for the last PAT.
Yeah, but way too late. That first miss told you all you needed to know. I feel for the kid.
Time to fire Wilcox
It's not so much Wilcox, its the fact that we haven't the the material that Washington, Oregon, USC, etc have. Cal and Stanford are limited to recruiting players who have to have the grades to enter their intitutions. Also, this portal crap is killing college sports. It's like free agency in pro sports with every one eligible.
Sorry, Coach, but Oregon St., Wazzu, Utah have all built tough, hard nosed programs without big $$$ and 4-5* recruits.
Wilcox is not the answer.
What are their entrance requirements compared to Cal and Furd? They have much bigger pool of athletes to pick from.
Not really. They've just done a better job of coaching their guys up than we have.
A larger focus on entrance requirements: What about UCLA’s? Michigan’s? Notre Dame’s? All top tier academically but, somehow, they also get top flight recruits, coaches and have far superior programs. Cal could do the same IF IT REALLY WANTED TO!
He said the schools are top tier academically, not necessarily the athletes.
Our academic exception percentage (i.e. athletes who are excused for being below admission standards and admitted). I do not know the threshold, but the bar was set so high, following Tedford, that we, program-wise, are self-destructing. Perhaps I'm wrong. But imagine UCLA's threshold is 50%, while ours is 20%, just a hearsay guess.
^^^This.
Let's pivot fifty plus years of culture and scheming against popular sports, first.
Honestly, name a dream replacement and, in all likelihood, he ends up with little or no better results.
Please.
With all due respect, gents, this argument is weak. Cal has an incredibly solid NIL thru CALegends that is in the top 1/4 of the conference and attracted a very solid transfer portal class to go along with an experienced D. The team has talented players, and arguing that Cal is middling because of a lack of horses is nothing more than excuse making for a weak coaching staff.
Again, with all my respect - I just disagree on Wilcox’s culpability - look at Wazzu/Or St/Utah.
At this point a change is warranted, though clearly there was not a tarmac moment. But the administrative ennui in accepting continued mediocrity is a big problem. Suffering through the worst loss of the Wilcox era is almost unconscionable at this point. I mean fans stepped up and answered Cal Legends' capital call by speaking with their wallets, an important first step which needs continued growth. And after that we get a horrific start in Pac-12 play, which must fall on the coaches. Hopefully it is not too late to get to a .500 season which would be nice in this era of Pac-12 juggernauts.
Not the hill I want to die, Jimmy, but one must admit, fifty plus years betrays a pattern. I have read you, yourself, refer to it. I just won't bet any money firing Wilcox will make the difference, however, I would not rule it out.
In the end, alumni and donors must pool leverage and make a statement to effect systemic change.
Apples and Oranges Geoff ... let's look at our brother from the south (UCLA - same state and same academic system). USWN lists Cal and UCLA tied academically at 15 - you must have a GPA of 4.15 to attend UC Berkeley and UCLA only accepts applicants with a GPA of 4.18 or higher - so now that we have identified that it's not academics that's holding us back ... looking at current climate and according to 247 for the class of 24 CAL currently ranks second from the bottom in recruiting with SMU pulling up the rear (they're a G5 program so that makes sense) while Furd is 4th IN THE ACC??? Behind the likes of FSU, Clemson, Miami, then FURD followed by UNC (they got their branding name right) and Duke (currently ranked in top 20 FBS (7th academically) ... We're behind UVA and Boston Freaking College - are you kidding me?
There are teams that are well-coached but out-talented, and then there are teams that both lack talent and coaching. We unfortunately, fall into the latter.
The interceptions by Finley are bad coaching (mainly by playing him over Jackson), the lack of blocking on bubble screens is a lack of coaching, the utter disarray that is special teams is a lack of coaching, these are just a few examples.
We benefited plenty from the portal this year, with us getting a net positive. It's just that some other teams have done better than we have, both recruiting high school and transfer players.
In the end, I think it allows better players on the field at a given time, since guys who were buried on depth charts but otherwise would be pretty good can transfer and see the field.
Wilcox is a proven good defensive coach. His main mistake as a head coach is hiring terrible Offensive and defensive coordinators. Spavital shows no deception isn his offense. No reverses, counters, quick traps, bootlegs, etc. Sermon's defense rarely puts on a full blitze package where he has corner or nickel dogs, or double A gap dogs. His defense scheme is way too generic.
Forget it, Jake. It's Cal football.
Perfect.
typiCal ©️Bob R. 2020
Repeating a comment I’ve shared in seasons past, from my dear friend and fellow Berkeley Monthly colleague the late, great Walter Matkowsky, “Cal just doesn’t have the horses.”
1. For the 3rd straight game...the team comes out flat and unprepared!
2. Finley was supposedly the starter for his decision making? Why did they stubbornly keep him in the game until his injury?
3. Why are they stubbornly staying with Luckhurst?
4. Our O & D is so vanilla! Where's the creativity?
5. Why was Correia on ST on the run back?
6. There's talent on this team...but they're playing well below their talent level!
The Ducks' coaches probably don't see Cal throwing an interception and yielding an 83 yard punt return in the early minutes of the game as 'gifts'.
The interception was most certainly a gift. In fact, all three of Finley's interceptions were horrible, horrible decisions, which resulted in unforced turnovers by Washington's defense. Therefore, it is fair to classify them as gifts.
And to think that starting Finley was because of his "decision-making", according to the anchor bots on the ESPN broadcast.
Understand the meaning of 'gift' in this sporting context. But, there is an opposing team on the field doing everything it can to disrupt and confuse their opponent's offensive schemes.
To me a 'gift' in the sporting context is an unforced error. Finley not throwing the ball out of bounds when throwing the ball away is a gift. Finley throwing into double coverage deep down field was a gift. Finley throwing directly to a waiting linebacker that had to move one step was a gift. Those are mistakes that should never happen. Just like Cameron Goode's pick six against Ole Miss.
Yea....but....was the 'error' a result of a missed assignment, defensive decoy, or some other factor we are not aware of? There is also another team on the field trying to win.
That is the 'unforced' part of the unforced error. The defense did not force Finley into some of those errors. Not throwing the ball out of bounds is an unforced error. He might have been chased, but you have to throw it out of bounds.
Don't really disagree. Semantics. As in a 'rattled' QB who makes an inexplicable blunder. Unforced or forced? Who did the rattling?
Some gift. How bout stolen by a smarter, skillful band of thieves who know an easy mark when they "play" one.
I went back and looked at that 66-27 beating that Cal took against Washington in 2016 and can now say that game was imminently more watchable than what we saw last night. Cal was only trailing 28-20 in the middle of the second quarter until Washington turned on the jets in the second half. Davis Webb threw three interceptions in that game, too, but he was not benched the next game as Finley undoubtedly will be against ASU.
So I am calling you out Mr. Wilcox about what you said in the presser. You are going to look at "8,000 things" to turn around the season? Really? Doing that requires real work, I mean setting up a cot in the bowels of Memorial Stadium a la Jeff Tedford kind of work. Clearly you are not working that hard for your team to look that sloppy in the most pivitol game of the year. We all expected a loss, but this? Bad coaches and bad fits don't get better with time, folks, which is why most of them are let go in two or three years at the P5 level. It looks to me like Wilcox is simply grifting $5 million a year from the Cal coffers unless shown otherwise.
Ron Rivera next year?!
Finished the usual post game day morning reading of the blogs. Seemingly have lobotomized myself over the years of this drawn out noninvasive surgery version of it. Repetitive reading and posting of "how many bears can dance on the head of a pin" needs to be reassessed but I've said that before.